New film Bill a power-grab­bing ven­ture, says MCK

Me­dia stake­hold­ers have called for the with­drawal of the Film Clas­si­fi­ca­tion Bill 2016 pub­lished by the Film Clas­si­fi­ca­tion Board. They want con­sul­ta­tions on the con­tentious clauses. The stake­hold­ers say the Bill con­tains pro­vi­sions that if passed will un­der­mine press free­dom and po­ten­tially gag the me­dia. Me­dia Coun­cil chair­man Charles Kerich said, “It would be okay if all they wanted were a lit­tle more power, but they are on a power-grab­bing ex­er­cise. They want to reach into the man­date of the Me­dia Coun­cil and reg­u­late con­tent and ethics.” “They are reach­ing into the man­date of the Com­mu­ni­ca­tions Author­ity and so many other or­gan­i­sa­tions.” Kerich yes­ter­day told a press fo­rum at the Hil­ton Ho­tel that the Bill will fur­ther risk be­ing mis­used by anti-re­formists to wa­ter down me­dia free­dom and lib­erty. “The po­ten­tial of it be­ing mis­used by overzeal­ous in­di­vid­u­als is very real,” he said.